Face masks and particularly surgical face masks are, in general, designed to filter air born contaminates from the gases which are inhaled and exhaled by the wearer. In surgical procedures, such air born contaminates include, but are not limited to, biological contaminates, such as bacteria, viruses, fungal spores, lint, mineral fines, dust, skin squames and respiratory droplets. In this way, the surgical personnel, and particularly the respiratory systems of surgical personnel, are not contaminated by such contaminates, and particularly such contaminates originating from the patient and/or other surgical personnel. Nor is the patient, and particularly the operative site of the patient, contaminated by such contaminates.
To adequately filter or segregate such air born contaminates, conventional surgical face masks are generally constructed to satisfy several criteria. In an effort to meet some of these criteria, face mask manufactures have employed such things as suitable air born contaminate filter medium and provided structures which form a substantially gas-tight fit about the nose and mouth of the wearer. Additionally, face mask manufactures have also been concerned with minimizing condensation of moisture within the mask, and providing a comfortable and easily donable product. To these ends, traditional surgical face masks have been constructed such that the air born contaminate filter medium overlies the wearer's nose and mouth. As such, the filter medium prevents the patient from seeing the portions of the wearer's face covered by such surgical face masks. Accordingly, visual communications in the form of facial expressions between the wearer and the patient and/or other surgical personnel are impaired by such surgical face masks. This is so because the wearer's lip movements and or facial expression defined by the mouth and areas adjacent thereto are blocked when wearing such a surgical face mask. These deficiencies are even more pronounced if the wearer is in the presence of a hearing impaired individual.
Therefore, there exists a need to not only provide a surgical face mask which effectively segregates air born contaminates but also provides for improved communication between surgical personnel and the patient. Such an improved surgical face mask is provided by the present invention and will become more apparent upon further review of the following specification and claims.